Spark Joy with Deb: Simplifying and Organizing to Find Joy in Less, Not More

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Are you unhappy in your home due to too much "stuff"?Do you not know where to start to simplify and organize?Do you need motivation and encouragement?

While finding joy in our homes, we make more conscious decisions so joy fills other parts of our lives too, in our jobs, actions, and relationships. (I changed jobs, remade my garden, and published a long unfinished book...all possible because of the mindfulness work I did with spark joy simplifying in my home!) As discussed in my first post on this site, this style of home organizing was inspired by the book, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” by Marie Kondo.

I wanted to share this joy with others so I offered it to folks at Roots and Wings Yoga and Healing Arts at 317 N. Main St., Natick, MA, in a community event, March-July 2019. The regular participants want to take it again and hope others will join us. So the 2nd series will start in October 2019. Eight participants ma…

- I was so excited to find some money (in the form of savings bonds) while sorting through old cards. Feeling positive and inspired to sort through my mountain of photos. Thank you! Aimee D.- Mementos - it's amazing what we keep and then look at years later covered in dust and say, "It's time to go!" Fun to remember and then say good-bye...feels good! It can also bring up feelings and remembrances which is all part of it. It's been SO helpful to be accountable and a great group to be with. Thanks SO much! Kate S. comments from Spark Joy Together event on 7/13 (Mementos)see more with Themes belowphoto of us with a favorite item we brought, or got in the Swap

For years, I have been helping others to simplify and organize to find more joy in their homes and possessions (and doing it in my own home too).

This helps me. Would it help you?
I appreciate that I have friends and sisters who are happy to have me report in (over texts usually) about how I am progressing on my challenging areas while doing Spark Joy projects at home. I find it supportive.

My sister and I did a "long-distance" work day the other day. Instead of me driving to her home and being there to keep her motivated, this time I stayed home and worked on my home projects (stuck areas) while she worked in her home. We talked on the phone every hour or so. We both were helped and encouraged by this.

In Marie Kondo's book, she discusses that if parents leave their many years of collecting to their children to deal with when they die, they miss out on revisiting their treasures (photos for instance) themselves before then. While looking through all they have, they can pick and choose what to leave behind...what they want their children to enjoy.

Deb is an enzyme. She is that enzyme that helps you to facilitate your transformation. Like you know you are on a journey to your higher self and you can’t see where you are going. And sometimes you just wanna give up. That is where I was when Deb offered to help me spark joy. At first I was like, sure – I am organizationally challenged, I could use help with cleaning my room, I mean whatever I was doing certainly wasn’t working.So Deb walked me through her process. Clothes? Sure. I can’t fit or wear half of them. Some I didn’t even like but when you dress like me, people just want you to have stuff in hopes that you won’t hurt their eyes or evoke unwanted feelings. LOL. A lot was myself as well and trying to hold on to something.Books we left for last. Because. Books.Anyways, the thing that was most unique about Deb is that she saw my soul or she’s empathetic. So she really tries to channel your journey and helps you clear your path (pun intended).Now we are at the tail end of my spa…

While sorting your things in your home, you might rediscover an object you haven't used in ages; something you remember having fun with in the distant past when you took more time for fun. Like a tent or a hula hoop. While holding the object in your hands and checking in with your feelings, you decide to keep it. You put it in a more convenient spot and take it out now and then again to use it alone or with friends. It still Sparks Joy!

I needed to get rid of a bunch of things, but could never find the time and motivation. Deb offered to help me using her "spark joy" approach. It took a while for it to work for me, because I didn't think in terms of "joy" from my possessions. She has patiently worked with me and helped me figure out what to do when I feel stuck. I appreciate how she suggests where she could help while waiting for me to say when I'm ready to deal with a particular area.- Nancy
Helping my sister once a month with her bedroom/office in her shared apartment in Brighton gave me experience and practice using the Spark Joy technique with a particularly reluctant participant who had little time or energy to care for her living space.

During one stage, Nancy gave me a ratty old cardboard filing box, with years of tape history on it, to recycle or donate. Instead, I took it home and covered it in cloth and added new hanging files. With matching cloth, I also covered another box I pl…

So after you do a Spark Joy project, you might find you have more time, since you have a simplified home space.

I changed my large perennial garden over to a low maintenance, draught-tolerant garden in the fall of 2016 in order to make more time for doing more racial justice meeting organizing. This work helps me feel like I can make a difference, build sharing communities, and more...things that bring me joy (more than any object), and hopefully the work brings joy to others too, in the process.

Below is my garden filled in more than when I made it over in 2016; this was taken in the summer of 2018. I look happy because I can enjoy the garden more now...it isn't just work!

I also realized that I had too many part-time jobs and was feeling a lot of stress from that. I decided which jobs brought me joy, and which ones didn't (anymore), and proceeded to quit some. That freed me up to do work that sparks joy. Like teaching pottery (dagworks.com)...and organizing racial justice me…

Deb helped me focus on the possessions I truly care about, instead of just the one's I thought I was saving for posterity. Turns out if you don't get joy from it, there isn't a whole lot of reason to save it. Deb has an uncanny ability by just listening to me and discussing how I feel about things when I pick them up, to help me realize their true value in my life. She seems to do this almost instinctively, clearly empathetically, and essentially instantly. Despite previously storing things "wherever", and thinking I knew where everything was kept, the new approach looks a whole lot better, and I can still find something when I need it. Mostly, my previous messy arrangement just wore on me in various subtle nagging ways at a somewhat subconscious level. Turns out a clean environment encourages better thinking and problem solving, and those are important parts of my life. Thank you, Deb!- Phil

Phil is an amateur photographer (philslens.com) and software developmen…

Are you unhappy in your home due to too much "stuff"?
Do you not know where to start to simplify and organize?
Do you need motivation and encouragement to get it done?

In planned blocks of time, I can work with you step by step, to help you go through your possessions in your home...selecting and making decisions about what to keep and what to give away, or trash...based on what sparks joy for you now...not based on past experiences or future desires.

When the sorting is done for each group (clothes, books, paper, mementos, etc.) then we organize and put away what you are keeping in such a way that things are easy to find, access, and return. It is so much more joyful to have less things so they can be found and put away quickly. (Usually, the storage space and containers you already have are the perfect size for what you decide to keep!)

It is exciting is to rediscover, while sorting, what sparks joy for you, and let go of what does not, so someone else can benefit from you…

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
by Marie Kondo

I recommend this book for all to read. If you read it or not, and want help doing this kind of organizing in your home (if within an hour or Ashland, MA) then I can help you. I don't do exactly what Marie does, but I have learned from her and think her methods work well, in general.More info on her book here.